Latest escapes since new fence installed
Morgan Hill – Two James F. Holden Boys Ranch residents escaped from the facility located in a residential area on Malaguerra Avenue just before 8pm Sunday, despite the recent installation of a fence surrounding the property.
The two juveniles were still at large Wednesday afternoon.
The young men reportedly crossed Coyote Creek and headed towards Cochrane Road.
Sheriff’s office deputies responded with a search team, a police dog and set up a perimeter, later brining in a helicopter to search for the teens.
“We are still investigating how the boys escaped,” said Delores Nnam, public information officer for the Santa Clara County Probation Department. “We did have deputies out searching, but the boys have not been apprehended. The search is still going on.”
Nnam said the method the boys used to escape is under investigation.
“They may have climbed over the fence, but that has not been confirmed to us yet,” she said Wednesday afternoon. “We are looking into this carefully.”
Calls to the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s office for comment were not returned by the end of the day Wednesday.
The county probation department facility came under fire last year as residents of the neighborhood complained about the number of escapes from the facility and raised concerns about safety. Supervisor Don Gage and Morgan Hill Police Chief Bruce Cumming organized a series of community meetings to discuss the problem.
There has been just one runaway incident at the ranch since Aug. 1, about the time fence construction began. The ranch had been averaging about 100 runaways a year.
The fence was built after residents of housing developments that have sprouted around the ranch in recent years complained about escaping youths running through the neighborhood. The county initially resisted a fence and experimented with a satellite tracking system. When the electronic surveillance proved inadequate in tests, the fence was built at a cost of $890,000.
Late last year, county supervisors approved spending $3.2 million to hire more ranch counselors and implement the new programs.
